New bulk drug manufacturing facilities, worth a total of around €123 million (£90 million), were officially opened this week at AstraZeneca's Avlon Works near Bristol in the UK.
The investment will provide bulk drug for the worldwide supply of rosuvastatin, the active ingredient in the company's new cholesterol fighter Crestor.
The new facilities house processes for synthesis, purification, drying and milling, with additional quality assurance and warehousing units.
"We are very proud that cross-functional teams have worked together to design, build, commission and operate these new plants against a challenging timescale. They are vital components in AstraZeneca's extensive international launch programme for Crestor," said the company's deputy chairman Dr Håkan Mogren when he opened the new facilities this week.
The new state-of-the-art plant is part of a wider plan by AstraZeneca to consolidate the position of its new drug. s wider programme for the international launch of Crestor. First approved in the Netherlands last year, the company believes its new drug is a highly effective competitor in the global statin market, estimated to be worth more than €16 billion and growing at a rate of about 11 per cent annually.